1. Field of the Invention
Arrangements for avoiding chattering of mechanical elements, and specifically, electro-mechanical contacts.
2. Prior Art
It has long been known that the chattering of mechanical components sometimes effects the lifetime of a mechanical arrangement. A special problem arises in connection in the chattering with electro-mechanical contacts. In order to reduce the chattering of contacts there are different methods provided by the prior art which are either very expensive or act only to reduce the time of chattering. Such arrangements which provide for the complete suppression of chattering often leads to influencing the reliability of operations and the lifetime of the contact. In German Pat. No. 1,803,401 the kinetic energy of the contact blades is absorbed by friction between the contact blade and a damping blade. It is also known that there is a problem caused by the raising of the pressure and the friction power which reduces the time of chattering but also reduces the lifetime of the contacts because of the higher abrasion of the metal to metal interface.
Some good results have been achieved by the prior art by the method which consists of absorbing the kinetic energy by impacting it on a mechanical chain of impacts. In German Pat. Nos. 887,970 and 847,461 the chain of impact consists of either similar or enlarging masses. The solution provided by those German patents results in an arrangement of contacts which is very large, heavy and very complicated. Accordingly, they are useful only for resting contacts with a base.
For this reason such an arrangement is not useful in the existing trend in the art for miniaturization and simplification of construction. The inner friction of metallic bodies during impact is small, therefore, very long chains of impacts are necessary to provide sufficient damping of a wave of impact. The arrangement of masses avoiding chattering according to this invention avoids such disadvantages and is useful for absorption of kinetic energy of mechanical parts of any kind endangered by chattering and vibration, independent of size and shape, especially of contacts.